The Pros and Cons of Suffering
by Emerald Embers
Summary: Because there's nothing wrong with devoting a story to Braska's rear. PG for mild yaoi.


The Pros and Cons of Suffering  
  


by Emerald Embers

Rated PG for shounen-ai and mild bad language.

Non-profit fan-fiction. Squeenix rulz.

  


Braska blushed. This was a rare enough event in itself, being as the summoner usually had (appropriately enough) the emotional control of a priest, but the reasons behind the blush were more unusual still. It seemed that the man who would someday be treated as a near-deity had been a touch dishonest about a niggling problem.

"How did you get a needle in _that_ deep and carry on walking around normally if we ended up having to _carry_ you here?" Braska was a little more concerned with being highly embarrassed and thoroughly sore than with responding to Auron's nagging. It was even more embarrassing when the doctor informed him that had the needle traveled any further up, there was a chance it would have pierced his spinal chord and risked paralysing him. For life. Imagine explaining that one to Yevonites who had expected you to at least do the honourable thing and die on the way to fight Sin. In between rolling the alarmingly long needle between his fingers, Braska grew aware Auron was still ranting away.

"Auron, quieten down and _please_ stop paying so much damn attention to my ass!" Auron looked a little hurt and decidedly shell-shocked, not that Braska could tell, head pressed into the pillow as it was.

"What's going on?" Came a now-familiar gruff voice.

"Braska's had a stupid accident involving a cactuar."

"Bummer, tough luck mate," Jecht responded, giving Braska a firm slap to the rump as punctuation.

Braska made a broken yelping sound that would have drawn sympathy from Mushroom Rock. Shortly after, Jecht made a non-too-dissimilar sound in response to receiving a vengeful kick to the groin.

_It was worth it,_ Braska's brain replied in response to the high summoner's musing on the pain he had felt on lifting his leg to perform said kick.

"Will you two just _stop it_ for a moment?" Auron grouched at the currently immature older men. Jecht glared at Braska, then at Auron, while the summoner continued to quietly despair into his pillow. Auron's mothering and Jecht's burly nature were _not_ doing much to soothe his feelings about the whole situation. "Jecht, go back to the hotel. Just make sure no-one tries to acquire our rooms while Braska's in here."

"And you?"

"We'd not be very good guardians if we left Braska on his own, would we?" Jecht looked at Braska, then raised an eyebrow at Auron.

"Figures." After briefly debating the pros and cons of risking further groinal damage by smacking Braska's backside again, Jecht left the room with a shrug and a grin. "Seeya!"

  


Auron grabbed a chair and put it down by the top of the bed, sitting down so Braska could see his face while they talked. "You really should have told us you were in pain, you know. Bearing in the mind that we're your guardians." A pause before he picked up a section of lavender-coloured hair, a slight worried frown attaching itself to his face. "The assistant made a right mess of this when she washed it." Another pause. Braska often wondered if Auron had some mysterious disease that caused him to fill his speeches with barely appropriate pauses. "Can I-"

"Yes you can, and I wasn't in anywhere near this much pain until it got infected so leave the needle subject alone." Auron flushed slightly before rooting through his bag for his comb and sitting carefully on the edge of the bed, lifting some of his summoner's currently matted hair onto his legs and starting to detangle the various knots the useless washer had left in what was otherwise impressively silky considering they had been traveling for a few months now. A long, slightly awkward silence began while Auron combed Braska's hair, before the older man grew mildly frustrated by the atmosphere and after drumming his fingers on the bed for a few seconds, reached down and placed his hand on top of Auron's.

"Braska..?"

"I know." Auron pulled his hand away from Braska's and continued to comb in silence, unnerved, embarrassed, and a touch stuck for a reply. "Auron, I'm not angry."

"Braska, don't-"

"Don't try and tell me what I can and can't do, Auron. You're not my mother." A tired laugh. "What you are, is highly-strung and driving me insane with the way you've been skirting around the issue for weeks."

  


Auron scratched the back of his neck with the comb before putting it down and getting back into his chair at the bedside so that neither of them had to crane their necks to see the other's expression. "Why did you want to know?"

"Originally, I wanted my journey to be about vengeance. Then they told me Yuna was completely unharmed, and it was going to be about her. But I'm only human, Auron, I'd like something other than my daughter's happiness to keep me going. Not that her life isn't enough - Yevon knows it's more than enough - but it's always nice to have... a little something for yourself." Auron did not shrug off Braska's hand this time when it rested on his arm, merely reddened further. "This is normally the point where you decide if you want to kiss me, or leave the room and stick to awkward silences for the rest of the journey."

Auron liked answering an easy question almost as much as Braska liked asking it.

  


Though neither particularly liked the exclamation in a still familiar gruff voice from outside the hospital window.

"HA! I _KNEW_ it!"

  


Auron stared at the window for a moment, causing Braska to wonder if his young guardian was going to scarper off and attempt to violently murder Jecht, but the summoner's worries were soon assuaged by Auron walking to the window, smiling smugly, and closing the blinds. It didn't take too long to lock the door either.

  


Curiously enough, Braska's backside wasn't the only one to be aching later that afternoon.

  


The End


End file.
